The lower class and the slaves, who, in point of colour and appearance, are the same, labour together. The freeman, however, has only one inducement to work, which is hunger; he has no notion of laying by any thing for the advantage of his family, or as a reserve for himself in old age; but, if by any chance he obtains money, remains idle until it is expended, and then returns unwillingly to work.
The females here are allowed greater liberty than those of Tripoli, and are more kindly treated. The effect of the plurality of wives is but too plainly seen, and their women in consequence are not famed for chastity. Though so much better used than those of Barbary, their life is still a state of slavery. A man never ventures to speak of his women; is reproached if he spends much time in their company; never eats with them, but is waited upon at his meals, and fanned by them while he sleeps; yet these poor beings, never having known the sweets of liberty or affection, are, in spite of their humiliation, comparatively happy.
The authority of parents over children is very great, some fathers of the better class not allowing their sons even to eat, or sit down in their presence until they become men: the poorer orders, however, are less strict.
There are no written records of events amongst the Fezzanners, and their traditions are so disfigured, and so strangely mingled with religious and superstitious falsehoods, that no confidence can be placed in them; yet the natives themselves look with particular respect on a man capable of talking of “the people of the olden time.” Several scriptural traditions are selected and believed. The psalms of David, the Pentateuch, the books of Solomon, and many extracts from the inspired writers, are universally known, and most reverentially considered. The New Testament translated into Arabic, which we took with us, was eagerly read, and no exception made to it, but that of our Saviour being designated as the Son of God. St. Paul, or Baulus, bears all the blame of Mohammed’s name not being inserted in it; as they believe that his coming was foretold by Christ, but that Paul erased it: he is, therefore, called a Kaffir, and his name is not used with much reverence.
slavery and the slave-trade.
In Morzouk about a tenth part of the population are slaves, though many have been brought away from their countries so young as hardly to be considered in that light. With respect to the household slaves, little or no difference is to be perceived between them and freemen, and they are often entrusted with the affairs of their master. These domestic slaves are rarely sold, and on the death of any of the family to which they belong, one or more of them receive their liberty, when, being accustomed to the country, and not having any recollection of their own, they marry, settle, and are consequently considered as naturalized. All slavery is for an unlimited time, unless when a religious feeling of the master induces him to set a bondsman free on any great festival, on the occasion of a death, or, which not unfrequently happens, from a wish to show his approval of the slave’s services.
It was, when the people were more opulent, the custom to liberate a male or female on the feast of Bairam, after the fast of Rhamadan. This practice is not entirely obsolete, but nearly so. The slaves are procured from the inland traders, or on those lawless expeditions I have already mentioned.
Respecting the offspring of slaves, it may not be uninteresting to observe the regulations existing in Fezzan, which are, as far as I can collect, the same as in all Moslem countries.
A Khādem خعدم, or negress, bearing a child by her master, cannot afterwards be sold, but must be maintained for the remainder of her life by him, or any person to whom he may marry her; and her child is free, and equally entitled to support.
A negress having a child by any man but her master (even though the parties should be married), is the mother of a slave, she herself not being free.